Leah on the Offbeat - Becky Albertalli

Title: Leah on the Offbeat
Author: Becky Albertalli
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 2 Stars

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Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended. 

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I picked up Leah on the Offbeat because I loved it's predecessor, Simon Vs., so much!  However, I found that Leah on the Offbeat just didn't hold up.

The one thing I liked about this book:

-Simon and Bram!  There characters are just as fabulous in Leah as they were in Simon Vs.  The promposal that Bram has for Simon is THE BEST!  They are the only reasons that this book was worth reading. 

Now, let's talk about what I didn't like:

-Leah.  I didn't like the main character. At all.  She was rude to everyone, especially her own mother.  Her mom tried so hard to be nice to her, and she was such a bitch to her mom.  Leah had a bad attitude towards her friends as well, and it left me wondering why anyone would want to spend time with her.  For example, at the end of Chapter 20, Abby is giving Leah all this great advice about what she can do to earn money with her drawings.  Leah, instead of thanking Abby for the advice, says "I'm not sure why you care."  Then through her internal m voice, Leah thinks to herself, "It's not like I'm opposed to what Abby is saying.  I just feel like being bitchy to her.   Fucked up, I know.  But that's where we are."

I mean, seriously?  Leah "just feels like being bitchy to" Abby?  Because who wouldn't love to be friends with someone just feels like being bitchy to them?! 

I also hated the way Leah treated Garrett.  He liked her so much, and she just jerked him around, because she said she'd never had anyone like her before.  So because this is the first time that anyone has ever liked her, it's okay for her to jerk him around?! 

My anti-Leah rant could just go on and on, so I'll just put it down to one sentence: Leah is a selfish, egotistical, brat who doesn't care about anyone but herself. 

Now, the rest of the book.  Okay, so here's the thing:

1. Abby dumped Nick, them messed around with Leah and just fucked with her because Abby was confused or something.  They went to a UGA tour, and Abby kissed Leah, all this time thinking that they are both straight, then finds out that Leah is bi.  Then, THEN after finding out that Leah is, in fact, not straight, she keeps messing with Leah, by like holding her hand, and making all these veiled references to Leah without telling Leah that she might be bi as well. 

2. The secondary characters in this book were not as well developed as they were in Simon Vs.  It was hard to get attached to them, because I felt like they were all just a little bit flat. 

Overall, this book was a dud.  I rated it 2 stars only because I know how much effort it takes to write a book.  But, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. If you really want to revisit Simon's world, I recommend just re-reading Simon Vs.